Abraham Brandt is engaged in business at Rock City as a butcher and dealer in fish. He was born in Huntington county, Pennsylvania, May 1, 1844. His father, John Brandt, was a native of Franklin county, that state, and was a tailor by trade. He continued his residence in the east until 1854 when he came to Stephenson county where he secured land and engaged in farming until his death, which occurred about nine years ago, when he was seventy-six years of age. He married Sarah Crouch, also a native of Pennsylvania, and her death occurred about fourteen years ago, when she was seventy-one years of age.

Abraham Brandt came to Stephenson county with his parents when a lad of ten years. He had begun his education in the district schools of Pennsylvania and in Illinois continued his studies. He also aided in the work of the home farm, early becoming familiar with the dutes and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. When the war broke out in the spring of 1861, although but seventeen years of age, he enlisted in response to the country’s call for troops, joining the W. R. Goddard Company at Lena for three months. The company encamped on the old fair grounds at Freeport but was not mustered into the United States service, so that Mr. Brandt returned home. In August of the same year, however, he once more offered his aid to the government and joined Company E of the Forty-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry under the command of Captain L. B. Fiske. This command was mustered into the service in November, 1861, but in the following year Mr. Brandt participated in the battle of Fort Donelson and in Shiloh. He also took part in the march to Corinth and in the engagement at Jackson, Tennessee, after which he crossed the river below Vicksburg and took part in the skirmish at Port Gibson. He was also in the siege of Vicksburg and marched with Sherman’s army to the sea, while later he participated in the grand review at Washington, which was the most celebrated military pageant ever seen in the western hemisphere. The Victorious soldiers marched between two rows of people who thronged the entire length of Pennsylvania avenue, and across that broad thoroughfare was suspended a banner bearing the words: “The only debt which the country owes that she cannot pay is the debt she owes her soldiers.” After receiving honorable discharge on the 4th of July, 1865, following nearly four years of active serv­ice at the front, Mr. Brandt returned to Stephenson county and began farming on his own account, renting land in this county, which he cultivated for five years. He then went to Nebraska in 1873 and spent three and a half years there, returning in 1876. He next took up carpentering which he followed for six years, when he was injured in a fall. Since that time he has peddled fish for twenty-three summers and engaged in the butchering business in the winter seasons. For twenty-nine years, or since 1881, he has resided in Rock City where he owns a comfortable home.

On the 25th of January, 1866, Mr. Brandt was married in Lena, Illinois, to Miss Kate Yeigh, a daughter of Fred Yeigh, a farmer of this county. They have become parents of five children: Ida, the wife of Frank Eilert; Mary, who wedded George Long; Charles, who passed away in 1881 at the age - of nine years; George, engaged in the plastering business at Beloit, Wisconsin; and Elsie, the wife of Otto Molson. In his political views Mr. Brandt is an earn­est republican, believing firmly in the principles of the party, and for one term served as tax collector and also as constable. He holds membership in John A. Davis Post, G. A. R., at Freeport, and is a member of the Evangelical church of Rock City. His life has ever been a useful and busy one, and he has made good use of his time and opportunities, gaining a comfortable living and also gaining the respect and friendly regard of many with whom he has come in contact.